


Tourist Trap

by Daegaer



Series: Pretend to be Human [22]
Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Androids, Drug Withdrawal, Friendship, Lies, M/M, Medication, Partial Mind Control, Science Fiction, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28452003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: Sanzo feels a little better. Goku feels relieved. Hakkai feels - well, who knows?! Gojyo feels more than a little awful
Relationships: Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo
Series: Pretend to be Human [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1152416
Kudos: 10





	Tourist Trap

"This looks like a good town," Goku said. "The roads are wide and, look! There's asphalt!" He climbed over Gojyo and peered out the window. "And there are lots of shops and inns! Doesn't that sound like a good town, Sanzo?"

"Uhn," Sanzo said. He rested his head against the window and didn't say anything else.

"It's better than that village we stopped in yesterday, right? This place will have somewhere comfortable for you to sleep."

"Yeah," Sanzo muttered.

Goku looked in worry at Gojyo.

"We can find a doctor, right?"

" _Yeah. We. Will._ "

" _Shall we try this somewhat overly fancifully named establishment, Master Goku?_ " Hakkai said, slowing the jeep.

"Uhh, yeah, yeah. I guess?"

Hakkai turned the wheel and drove into one of the parking slots set aside for the White Jade Peony Inn. He jumped out and went around to help Sanzo out, settling the young monk's robes neatly around him. Gojyo ran through visual images of Sanzo from a couple of weeks previously, comparing them with what he saw now. His master had definitely lost weight.

"I want a cigarette before we go in," Sanzo said, and lit up, leaning back against the jeep to slowly smoke. Goku hung around beside him, talking about nothing, sounding worried.

" _A tourist trap or just a pretentious inn keeper?_ " Hakkai said, nodding at the sign as they unloaded the jeep.

" _Would. There. Be. Tourists. Out. Here?_ "

" _Coming from the west, perhaps? Here, if you can take Master Sanzo's bag -_ "

" _Hakkai,_ " Gojyo whispered, " _Is. He. Getting. Better?_ "

" _Oh, I think so. He's smoking; he hasn't been interested in that foul habit for a while. He's just a bit woozy from car sickness right now. This fresh mountain air will perk him up._ "

Sanzo finished his cigarette and tossed the butt on the ground, which was so like his normal self that Gojyo felt he might cry, if he'd been the sort of android that could emulate such an emotional state. Hakkai made an annoyed little _tsk_ at the littering, but Sanzo didn't seem to be well enough to enjoy it. He walked, mostly steadily and under his own power, up the steps of the inn and into its pretty main room.

"I hate these fucking traditional places," he muttered.

"Mister!" Goku said as a man wearing a uniform embroidered with the inn's name approached. "Could we have a room? A big one with twin beds? My friend, uh, that is, my guardian needs a rest."

Hakkai came up behind him and bowed. "Sir, my master, the Honourable Genjo Sanzo and his ward require accommodation. It would be most convenient if there were somewhere near their room where we, their servants, might place ourselves for the night."

The man looked them all over. Gojyo wondered if he thought high-ranked priests were all old men who smelled vaguely of mould. Sanzo didn't look much like a high ranked priest, swaying a little as he stood, too thin and looking younger than he was in robes that swamped him. He looked little older than Goku.

"Two rooms," Sanzo said suddenly, ignoring Goku's protests that he needed someone to take care of him. "I'm sick of all the noise."

It was a good sign. It was a normal sort of thing for him to say. Not that the man about to throw them out for wasting his time knew that. Then Sanzo stood straight, pushed his hair out of his face so the man could get a good look at him and settled his robes around him a little more securely. He looked suddenly less like a strung-out teenager dressed as a priest and more - unworldly and ascetic, Gojyo supposed. That was a good, Hakkai sort of word.

"Give this gentleman the monastery credit card, Hakkai," Sanzo said, not mumbling at all.

Hakkai bowed again and passed it over. The man reluctantly took it and fiddled with some equipment behind a desk. Then he came back all smiles.

"It's indeed a pleasure, Honourable Master Sanzo! We'll have your bags taken up at once!"

"My androids will carry the bags."

"Of course, of course! This way!"

They were led up the stairs to a door giving on to a spacious room with a wide, low bed, a couple of dark wooden chairs and matching table with floor cushions. Sanzo went in and wandered over to the window, staring out at the view of the mountains.

"It's fine," he said. "Hakkai –"

Hakkai hurried over as Gojyo followed Goku to the room next door, which was narrower but laid out in a similar fashion.

"Thanks," Goku said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "It's very – thanks."

When they went back to the other room, Sanzo was sitting on the floor under the open window against the wall, looking exhausted. He sighed as Goku collapsed down beside him, staring at him.

"I'm fine, Goku. Just tired. The fresh air helps."

Hakkai came back and began to unpack the few things Sanzo had.

" _The food will be brought shortly, sir. I'm glad you feel up to eating._ "

"I feel like shit," Sanzo said. "But I won't feel any better for starving myself." He rubbed at his temples.

"Do you have a headache, Sanzo? Hakkai, where are the tablets for headaches?"

Sanzo put a hand on Goku's arm before he could bounce up.

"No. No tablets. My mind's clearer than it has been for – days? How many days?" He looked at them all suspiciously. "What the hell? What did you give me?"

Gojyo suddenly wished very much that Hakkai had continued feeding Sanzo the medication and they would never have had the conversation. Goku made things worse, or better by sniffling and trying to hold his hand, which made Sanzo slap at him a bit. The bastard was definitely coming back to himself.

" _If I might, sir_ ," Hakkai said, and extended a hand to help Sanzo up. He offered a chair and then simply pushed up the sleeve of his robe, not allowing Sanzo to free his arm.

"What the hell?" Sanzo started and then stopped, seemingly only then becoming aware that he was not wearing the normal inner sleeve upon his right arm. He looked in some surprise at the bandage that Hakkai undid and the parallel slash marks under it, neatly sewn together.

" _I apologise, sir_ ," Hakkai said. " _I felt you needed to understand the nature of the incident. Do you remember the fight itself?_ "

Sanzo looked somewhat confused, then, "Yes," he said. "Some of it. Goku said he fought a girl?"

"I said that afterwards! I was really upset!"

" _We were a long way from medical aid, and the wounds were causing you more pain than you'd admit. We had to drive over rough terrain, which would just jostle you. I gave you morphine_ ," Hakkai said, which was both true and far from honest.

Gojyo stayed totally still as Sanzo poked at the wound, wincing a little, and then moved his arm experimentally.

"Did I actually pay for you to get first aid software or did you just download more poetry instead?" he said at last. "You can't keep someone on morphine just because you see a wound and panic, Hakkai."

" _I sincerely apologise for such inadvisable actions_ ," Hakkai said, going into a deep bow and staying there. " _I was motivated by concerns for your well being._ "

"Do you have nothing to say?" Sanzo said, looking at Gojyo. He batted Goku away as the kid tried to poke at the site of the wound again.

He should tell him. And then he'd have to take care of Sanzo and Goku by himself, while Hakkai – what? Was fixed? Out here? Maybe he'd be sold. Maybe for parts. And one way or another, he'd be gone, and Gojyo would have lost a friend. He bowed.

" _I. Have. No. Medical. Software. I. Could. Not. Have. Cared. For. Your. Wound. As. Well. And. Carefully. As. Hakkai. Did. I. Also. Apologise. For. My. Shortcomings._ "

"When I think of the useful androids I could have brought with me," Sanzo grumbled. "Go and sit in Goku's room and defrag yourselves or whatever it is you do together. Goku, let them in with the food when they come. Everything except the rice with tea is yours."

He carefully moved over to the bed and lay down, ignoring all of them. Goku mouthed, _Sorry, guys_ as Hakkai and Gojyo left. They silently went into Goku's room and shut the door, before Hakkai crossed to the window to look out.

" _Come and look at the mountains! How beautiful they are._ "

They were just enormous heaps of rock covered with snow and ice. And probably genetically engineered yetis. Gojyo knew who'd be in the front line then. They'd be a good place for a treacherous android who had just lied to his master to fling himself from. How the hell had Hakkai not simply self-combusted five hundred kilometres back? All his sly little digs, and jokes and outright _lies_ and memories he shouldn't have and now – And now –

And now Gojyo was the sort of android who stood back and did nothing when a human in his care was drugged and made ill with the wrong medication. He must always have been that sort of android, there must always have been some sort of fatal flaw in his programming. Hakkai's influence couldn’t have made him something he wasn't already. He looked sidelong at Hakkai's face and back out at the mountains, putting his hands on the windowsill.

" _Yes. Beautiful._ "

" _Thank you,_ " Hakkai said, looking straight ahead.

" _You. And. Me. We're. Going. To. Have. A. Talk,_ " Gojyo said.

" _Yes. Of course. I'd be happy to, on any subject, any subject at all,_ " Hakkai said, putting a hand over Gojyo's. After a moment, he slipped his fingers in between Gojyo's curling them down over his palm. After another, Gojyo did the same.

They stood there, in silence, side by side looking out at the Himalayas.


End file.
